1934 — San Francisco, Toledo, and Minneapolis–St Paul

Not one but three citywide general strikes rocked the country during one of the most militant years of the Great Depression, with a national strike of the textile industry thrown in for good measure.

The San Francisco General Strike emerged out of a West Coast–wide maritime strike, in response to police shootings of strikers. Longshoreman Harry Bridges rose to national prominence for his role leading the general strike, which established the power of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union on West Coast docks.

In Minneapolis–St Paul, a large Teamster local organized drivers across the city and occupational lines. When its demands for union recognition and wage increases were rejected by employers, the local struck, with other unions joining in a general strike. After success in the strike, International Brotherhood of Teamsters Local 574 helped unions in other industries organize the city into one of the most unionized in the country.

In Toledo, a strike of autoworkers for union recognition and wage increases featured enormous picket lines with thousands of participants, demonstrations, and violent confrontations.

In each of these three citywide strikes, the intransigent anti-union behavior of employers and public authorities — who unleashed police and National Guard violence on their behalf, on top of ongoing dire economic circumstances for working-class communities — led to powerful and courageous collective action by the workers. In each city, they were led by radical labor organizers (Communists in San Francisco, Trotskyists in Minneapolis, and Socialists in Toledo). In each city, the unions carefully built alliances with unemployed workers beforehand to reduce the potential pool of strikebreakers. In each city, strikers died at the hands of police, and hundreds were injured. Not coincidentally, the National Labor Relations Act, setting up rules for peaceful conflict resolution between labor and capital, passed in Congress the following year.

1946 — Stamford and Hartford, CT; Camden, NJ; Lancaster, PA; Rochester, NY; Oakland, CA

Doubling the previous record for citywide general strikes in a year, 1946 witnessed six: five in the Eastern United States and one in the West. Each of these city work stoppages featured its own local grievances and demands. But they were also part of the largest wave of strikes in American history, as the wage and price controls from World War II were lifted, prices of basic goods rose, and workers demanded that their wages keep pace. In all, four and a half million workers walked picket lines throughout the year.